


we have stained these walls

by pepper_407



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Bisexual Character, Bisexual Nora Darhk, Bisexual Ray Palmer, F/M, Four plus One, lots of other characters from the show appear at one time or another, not actually but the same idea/vibe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25105867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pepper_407/pseuds/pepper_407
Summary: The four lives Nora and Ray could have led, and the one they did.
Relationships: Nora Darhk/Ray Palmer, just all the ships from the main fic and also
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	we have stained these walls

**Author's Note:**

> the title is from these streets by bastille

I

She's the bass player for his favourite band. She's probably the most gorgeous person Ray has ever seen, he's not idiotic to say he's in love with her, considering he's never talked to her, but she is beautiful and Ray can't help but go to every one of their gigs and he can admit it isn't just for the music. Nate says he's a fucking idiot, Kendra tells him that he should just talk to her and Zari also says he's an idiot, albeit with less love than Nate does. Look, he's a hopeless romantic, he falls in love at first glance, to prove it ⅔ of his friends he was once madly in love with. Nate never felt the same and Kendra felt maybe a fraction of what he felt and yeah both were hard to get over but very worth it. Because yes he's a hopeless romantic but he's also just a big lover, he loves with all of himself all the time and that is definitely not a bad thing

The first time he has a conversation with her is actually when he's getting a coffee and she runs into him and swears like a sailor and he becomes even more smitten. He sees her recognise him and feels very nervous but the fact that she seems kind of glad to have run into him and have had coffee spilt all over her can't possibly be a bad thing right?

It wasn't, they sat in the coffee shop for two hours talking about her music and her bandmates and his friends and his interest in science and at the end Nora says that she likes to kiss on the first date but lets him decide if he wants to kiss her. He does and it's quite possibly the best day of his life

They date for two years and then get married. Nora and her band perform at their own wedding and both of their vows include their first date and the fact that Ray stays best friends with all the people he falls in love with so even if they do get divorced they are forever. They don't get divorced, they do have three kids and a house that is given to them by Nora's shitty dad, she doesn't forgive him but she does send him an occasional Christmas card (well Ray himself sends the cards but she doesn't protest so he knows she is glad that he does). Their lives are filled with loud music, loud kids and loud love.

-

He had come to all of her shows for two months before she talked to him. But he was so drunk she is very sure he won't remember it, Sara pointed him out to her, his friends were missing and he looked miserable, she let him cry about his lost loves and she drove him to his house which is an address he really shouldn't have given out so easily. He was a sweetheart and Nora was fond of him but she knew she would never reach out to him.

And then the next week she literally runs into him at her local coffee place and she has the best date she's ever been on. He asks her about her interests and seems so invested in her stories that she finds herself talking about herself more than she has ever let herself do with someone who wasn't a close friend. 

They break up once for two weeks when Nora kisses someone else when she's drunk and sad, she has never regretted anything more in her entire life, Ray takes her back but she's never completely sure he's over it until he timidly brings up marriage as an option and she finally accepts that this is real and this is forever. They get married in Kendra's backyard and its a small and wonderful ceremony with Nora and the band performing because it's her wedding and she'll do what she wants. The occasion sets the tone for the rest of their lives and it really is such a wonderful tone

II

He's in the AP class and she needs a tutor, it's a classic story. Except for the fact that he has had a crush on her friend for three months and in their third tutoring session he very awkwardly asks if maybe she could set them up? It's so unlike him but Ray is graduating this year and he is starting to feel more confident in himself and he really doesn't think that's a bad thing, so yeah he asks the junior he is tutoring for her friend's number because Gary Green is adorable and Ray has had a crush on him ever since he saw him reading _Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe_. Nora gives him a look like she's impressed that he would ask for a boys phone number from someone he barely knows, honestly, Ray was rather impressed with himself as well, he almost backed down when she kept looking at him, trying to figure him out but he stood his ground and Nora nods and grabs his phone and put the number in and they go back to the session

Throughout the next few months Ray feel himself looking forward to tutoring sessions just because he will get to see Nora, she's feisty and insanely good at distracting him, which are two things you think one might not want in someone you are tutoring and Ray might be inclined to agree if that person wasn't Nora Darhk. He asked Gary what this feeling was and the boy just smiled and said he's very glad he didn't take Ray up on any sort of non-platonic relationship. The three of them become a bit of a friendship trio and even though Ray was excited for college, for the first time in his high school life he feels happy and satisfied and like he's really gonna miss this place when he leaves

The break after Ray graduates he spends with Nora and Gary swimming in the ocean and playing a million game of D&D -which is how Gary meets his boyfriend, John. So, Ray spends some time with both of them and Nora in situations that would seem a lot like double dates except for the fact that he and Nora aren't dating, they're not and they won't because Ray is about to go halfway across the country and Nora is still in high school and you can't start off a relationship like that, and Nora doesn't even feel that way about him anyways so thinking about it was stupid and a waste of time.

He goes to college and thrives, he finds his people but doesn't lose contact with Nora (and Gary and John) but he thinks this is where he belongs, he falls for a woman who has a boyfriend but then the boyfriend is kind and handsome so he falls for him too and Ray has a wonderful relationship with Nate and Amaya for whole two years until they both move to Amaya's home country and Ray can't bring himself to go with them, he parallels this to leaving Nora behind for college and then realises he really needs to stop thinking about her like that because she is still his best friend. She flies out for a week to help him through the break-up, she doesn't stay even though she was only doing one online course and Ray offered for her to stay with him for a while, she said she can't because it was her friend's birthday and gave him a kiss on the cheek before she left.

About a year later Ray moved back to his hometown because he got a research grant that needed him there. Nora threw him a welcome back party that mostly had people he didn't yet know but knew he would love (because Nora loved them). Ray thought if he and Nora were going to happen that it would take some time but one day when she is helping him unpack and she slowly reaches for him and pulls him into a kiss and Ray realises why she been has decorated his house the way she wants it, this was not his house. It was their home.

-

Nora's failing science so she gets a tutor, he's this nerdy senior who is actually pretty hot and turns out to be the kindest and most honest person she has ever met. He is also easily distracted and will answer any question she throws at him even if he has to research for an hour, she offhandedly wonders if farts can kill you and Ray says _hmm probably not let me find out_ and he gets into his research zone and says that maybe if lost of people farting were in a closed-in room that they couldn't escape that maybe someone could die. This was their second session and Nora was charmed.

On their third session, he shakily but confidently asked if maybe he could have the number for Gary Green. She almost laughs because Nora was not expecting this one bit but then she gives him her hard stare, while she also tries to figure out if he just asked for her nerdy male best friend's phone number in the middle of a tutoring session. He holds his ground although she can still see him shaking. She gives in because Gary has ever dated anyone and while she doesn't know if someone who is going to graduate this year and almost definitely go to a fancy college far away from here is a good place to start she just can't help but know that he wouldn't hurt Gary (at least on purpose) and she also just can't find it in herself to say no to Ray.

Nora slowly befriends him to a level of which she was not prepared for, just her and Gary morphs into the three of them (and then Gary starts dating a weird guy who is homeschooled and likes to do close up magic but is a very good Dungeon Master and seemed to make Gary giddy and happy), they keep hanging out at the beach as they used to but Ray also takes them bowling so much that by the time he finally leaves for college they are all masters. She avoids thinking about how she feels that summer while also living for every time someone thinks they are dating while simultaneously getting pissed when no one thinks Gary and John are.

He goes to his fancy College but doesn't forget about them (her) and they text and Skype all the time. She also graduates high school (just), gets a job at the local cinema and does a few online courses and it's a simple life but she likes it. She doesn't feel a need to move out of her hometown, she likes that she knows it well but is still finding new spots and as new places open up and more people move to town her social group expands past Gary and John, the two aren't together anymore (exclusively anyways) but they have a bond that Nora didn't even understand when she was seventeen. 

Nora joins a book club and just that fact alone would have teenage Nora cracking up but she ends up loving it and finding her kindred spirits (they read Anne of Green Gables together), aka what Ray would call _her people_. Ray tells her about Nate and Amaya and she is genuinely happy for him, she loves that he found people to love that love him, but the night he told her she ended up drinking so much that Ava took her back to her place and told her to get the fuck over him, and she knew in her heart that she was right. She met Amaya and Nate when she visited for Ray's birthday and they were wonderful and when she went back home she signed up for online dating because why not. She casually dated around a but nothing ever really came of it, she also got promoted to manager of the cinema branch and was Ava's maid of honour at her and Sara's wedding

They got a new member to the book club, Mona, she works with Gary and he vouched for her and she is a total sweetheart and Nora finds herself falling straight away. She knows Mona has similarities to Ray, she's not a moron but she genuinely likes Mona and not just because she resembles Ray in the way she interacts with the world around her like Gary not so subtly implies. She doesn't tell Ray because she's scared about his reaction, she's scared that it won't make him want to drink until he pukes (and yes she knows that's a bad thing to be thinking but she never claimed to be a good person). They date for about four months until Ray calls saying that Nate and Amaya left for good and she gets on a plane without thinking of anything else. She is there for him as much as she possibly can but leaves after a week because its Mona's birthday and she might be a bad girlfriend but she's not going to skip Mona's birthday to comfort Ray, he looks like he doesn't understand why she's leaving and honestly Nora couldn't possibly explain it to him in way that would sound like it made sense so she just leaves.

She gets dumped and she knows she deserves it so she stops dating and starts being a good aunt to Ava and Sara's daughter, being a good friend to them, Gary, John and even hopefully one day to Mona, working hard at her job and writing a few book reviews for a local magazine. And then Ray moves back and she says fuck it and kisses him as she is helping him set up his house because she loves him and he's here and he's looking at her like she has all the answers at the back of the book (aka the way she looked at him all through her junior year because he quite literally did)

III

She works at the coffee shop next to his favourite florist (yes he has a favourite florist - he likes to buy flowers okay). She's sarcastic but also quiet like she's been hurt before, or maybe he's just projecting, who knows. He likes to get a herbal tea and a muffin after buying his flowers and sit by the window drinking and thinking, he doesn't assume that she would recognise him because he worked in customer service as a young teen and never remembered anyone but one day he was leaving and she followed him out and said he had left something on his table. he had not but he took it anyway and had a look, it was a love letter and at first, he thought that maybe she was giving him a love letter and was so flattered he doesn't know what to do what himself. But then he saw it was signed by someone named Leonard. He pointed this out to Nora (he knew her name because of her name tag but he had only told her a few times because it was hardly ever busy when he was in) and explained his name was not Leonard but he wished he had received or written something as lovely as this. She sighed and agreed and asked him what she should do with it, Ray was not expecting this but he was flattered that she thought he might have an idea, weirdly his first thought was to burn it and even more weirdly he decided to tell her that

She looked at him like that was quite possibly the best thing he couldn't have said even though his face was going redder than a tomato. She suggested a Wicca burning ceremony and he couldn't have been more impressed with that idea especially by the fact that she followed through. It was the strangest night of his life, he didn't think it was a date but also he had no idea what it was, except for it being exceptional.

They had not exchanged phone numbers and he didn't want to seem like he expected anything of her. So he went to the florist the next time he wanted some flowers and went into the coffee shop and the smile she gave him was timid yet blinding and he ordered his herbal tea and sat in his window seat and when the waitress delivered the tea it came with a phone number, he also gave her the flowers on the way out and he loved the way she looked at him like he kept surprising her in the best ways possible. He used the number the second he got home and he never once regretted it.

-

Nora's last boyfriend left her for being _too weird_ , those were his exact words, there was also stuff about how she was too closed off and didn't like his friends but it was the too weird part that stuck out to her and seemed like the main reason. And she hated that, because yes she's weird but he knew that going in, he shouldn't have expected her to change for him and she hates that even now, five months later she's still thinking about that comment. 

She hasn't dated since she works a lot and looks after her dogs and hangs out with her friends, and dating is exhausting and annoying and she genuinely likes the single life. But she does enjoy having crushes and at the moment she has a thing for the guy the comes in about once or twice a month straight from the florist next door with some flowers and gets a herbal tea and just sits at the window seat sipping and thinking, she thinks he's beautiful and wants to know what's going on in his head. Although she knows that she will never talk to him in a non-professional environment.

Her coworker (and friend), Astra, likes to tease her about him (Ray) but in a light way and never told her to do anything about it because they both know that would set their friendship back two years. Except for one day when she notices that there is a piece of paper on the forever empty seat of the table Ray was just sitting at and is too intrigued, she glances at it and it's a beautifully written love letter and the name at the bottom is not Ray's which means he was given this letter and she cares for him (in her _too weird_ way) too much for him to lose it so she goes after him finding that he, thank god, walks slowly and approaches him about the letter. It's not him and she lets out a breath that she had no right to be holding and he suggests that it be burnt and she thinks she falls in love right there and then.

She shows her full weirdness and he only looks charmed. It was a wonderful night and she thinks that even if she never sees him again she will hold that night in a warm place in her heart. She tells Astra about it in great detail and keeps some of the ashes in a jar in her room, but then she continues with her life because she loves her life even if her favourite customer is gone from it.

And then he does show back up and she can barely hold the smile she has because this time the flowers are for her and so is he. And she gets Astra to give him her number and he calls that very night and the next seventy years of her (their) life is so weird and so wonderful.

IV

When Ray is in third grade his class starts a pen pal project with some other third graders in a school a few towns over and he is so excited to make a new friend who can be just his. Her name is Nora and she likes to write about a big bad demon who is inside of her head, Ray thinks this is very creative and tries to make up his own stories but they are never as good. They exchange letters the entire year and then when the project ends they continue to do it through their teachers because they think it's very cute that they want to stay friends.

They exchange letters until they are fourteen and then move over to emails, they talk about the things they can't tell anyone else, Ray starts to realise the demons for Nora aren't a story as much as how her head feels but allows him to use it as the baseline for his creative writing story in tenth grade. They talk about crushes and families and how hard they find it to make friends. They never meet in person but they do send photos of themselves to each other and find out that Ray's cousin goes to school with Nora and they laugh about small worlds

They email less and less as they get into their final year or so of schooling, eventually just stopping altogether. Ray thinks about Nora on occasion, hoping she is doing okay and is happy, he even almost emails her but feels it would be too awkward. He eventually moves away from his hometown and starts working at a research lab in a hospital and he thinks he has found his calling. He befriends a socialite named Zari and her grumpy boyfriend and the three of them make the weirdest trio ever and Ray thinks that this is the life he was meant to be living. 

His aunt gets remarried and he goes home for the wedding (he wanted to take Zari and Constantine but they refused on the fact that airplanes make Zari vomit and its hard to get Constantine to go anywhere without her-but especially a strangers wedding) which honesty Ray didn't blame him for, he was on the fence about going himself, but she's family and it could be nice to see some people from back home.

Ray Goes and wear one of Constantine's old school suits and he thinks he looks rather dapper, he wishes his aunt well and the ceremony is very nice, he drinks a lot and is considering going home with the best man when he sees someone in the corner of his eye that makes him excuse himself from the conversation immediately. He never saw her in real life but he studied the few pictures of her that she sent him in high school for longer than he would ever admit and yeah its been a fair few years but fuck it if that's not _Nora Darhk_. He makes his way over, stumbling a little because by this point he's pretty drunk and taps her on the shoulder and he can tell she recognises him straight away of which he is very glad about and he gives her a hug which she was obviously not expecting but doesn't fight it.

They take a bottle of champagne and go back to his hotel room and catch up, and what would you know, she lives in the same city he does. He ponders if this is the work of god and she gives him a soft punch and he remembers the feeling he felt as a young teen that he couldn't quite name. He can name it now. 

They meet up when they're both back in the city and try to keep it casual, but once their friend groups merge and they are all doing group pub trivia he realises that this isn't casual, this is it. And he loves it

-

When her teacher tells her that they are doing pen pals she groans, audibly, and then gets in trouble for not giving things a go. So she decided to write the best first letter in the world so her teacher would be so impressed but then she notices that Mr Stein didn't even read the letter and asked him about that and he replied that he wanted to treat them like the adults he believed they were, Nora, reminded him that they are nine years old and he just laughed. At first, she was pissed that she put all this effort in and wasn't even going to get rewarded. But then she was rewarded, with the best friend she could have ever asked for.

Ray told her about the science inventions he has thought up and how much he loves Iron Man comics, she tells him about the demons in her head and how it can feel nice to help people. They write letters and emails throughout most of their schooling years, it dies out like she kind of expected it to but she still feels sad when she realises that it's over, she mourns the friendship but it's not a sad ending, it's just moving on and growing up.

When Nora can afford it she moves to a larger city and becomes a school counsellor and she loves it. She feels helpful and when she doesn't she feels like she can handle it. She gets therapy for the big bad demon in her head and makes friends with Charlie who is the bartender at her favourite bar, Mona who is the English teacher at the school she works at, Sara who is the PDHPE teacher and both her girlfriend, Nyssa who teaches self-defence classes and works at a burger joint and her wife, Ava who writes crime novels. It's a good life and then she goes home for a family friend's wedding and it becomes a great life.

She runs into Ray, her childhood pen pal as she is discussing one of Ava's novels with a girl she vaguely remembers from her brief stint in the drama department but is immediately forgotten when Ray embraces her in a hug. They catch up in their hometown and then catch up in the city they both live in. She meets his friends who are as wacky as hers and their lives merge in a natural and wonderful way.

V

He meets her as a child who needs help and he tries to help her so many times but when she says, _no I need to help myself,_ Ray knows that this is the person he will love until the time ends. And He was right. 

-

She had a horrible childhood that had a few shining bright spots and one of them was singing songs from musicals in a coffee shop with Ray. He saves her many times and then She saves herself and saves him right back. This is a pattern they follow their entire lives and she has no idea how it could have gone any other way

**Author's Note:**

> Comments mean the actual world to me <3


End file.
